Wednesday 11 June 2014

New smart coating could make oil-spill cleanup faster and more efficient

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In the wake of recent off-shore oil spills, and with the growing popularity of “fracking” — in which water is used to release oil and gas from shale — there’s a need for easy, quick ways to separate oil and water. Now, scientists have developed coatings that can do just that. Their report on the materials, which also could stop surfaces from getting foggy and dirty, appears in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. A new coating that easily separates oil from water could make oil cleanup faster. Credit: American Chemical Society      J.P.S. Badyal and colleagues point out that oil-spill cleanup crews often use absorbents, like clays, straw and wool to sop up oil, but these materials aren’t very efficient because they also sop up a lot of water. Extra steps and equipment also are needed to remove the oil from the absorbent, which is difficult to do on a ship. Recently, researchers have turned their attention to new smart materials called “oleophobic-hydrophilic” coatings that instead let the water through and repel the oil. However, the films that have been reported so far take several minutes to do the separation, are complicated to make or aren’t very good at repelling oil.

The post New smart coating could make oil-spill cleanup faster and more efficient has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Mining data archives yields haul of 'red nuggets'

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The world of astronomy has changed. An astronomer used to have to travel to a remote location and endure long, cold nights, patiently guiding a telescope to collect precious photons of light. Now, a proliferation of online archives allows astronomers to make discoveries from the comfort of their own offices.



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Charging portable electronics in 10 minutes: New architecture for lithium-ion battery anodes far outperform the current standard

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Researchers have developed a three-dimensional, silicon-decorated, cone-shaped carbon-nanotube cluster architecture for lithium ion battery anodes that could enable charging of portable electronics in 10 minutes, instead of hours.

via Science Daily

NASA instruments on Rosetta start comet science

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Three NASA science instruments aboard the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft, which is set to become the first to orbit a comet and land a probe on its nucleus, are beginning observations and sending science data back to Earth.

via Science Daily

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Mercury passes in front of the sun, as seen from Mars

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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has imaged the planet Mercury passing in front of the sun, visible as a faint darkening that moves across the face of the sun.

via Science Daily

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NASA announces two upcoming undersea missions

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NASA is returning to the bottom of the ocean. Twice this summer, aquanauts participating in the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) will conduct activities on the ocean floor that will inform future International Space Station and exploration activities. These studies provide information that correlates directly to life aboard the space station, where crew members must frequently perform critical tasks that present constraining factors similar to those experienced in an undersea environment.

via Science Daily

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NASA's Orion spacecraft stacks up for first flight

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With just six months until its first trip to space, NASA's Orion spacecraft continues taking shape at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers began stacking the crew module on top of the completed service module Monday, the first step in moving the three primary Orion elements -crew module, service module and launch abort system -- into the correct configuration for launch.

via Science Daily

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An Infrared View of the Inner Milky Way from the S Print

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: astronomy, blue, exploration, milky way, natural sciences, nobody, outdoors, outer space, physical science, sciences, space exploration and research, star cloud, star cluster, stars

ImageID: 42-20480770 / NASA / JPL-Caltech/Corbis / An Infrared View of the Inner Milky Way from the Spitzer Space Telescope

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Intermediate-sized planets: Are they super-Earths or mini-Neptunes?

Science Focus

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Hubble's Neptune Anniversary Pictures.

If you look at our Solar System, there's a sharp divide between the four rocky planets and the large "ice giants" of the outer Solar System, Uranus, and Neptune. The divide isn't only a matter of properties; there's a large size gap between Earth and Neptune, which has a radius four times the size of Earth's. There's also a matter of location, with the rocky planets all clustered in the inner Solar System, while the ice giants orbit on the outer edge.

This raises an obvious question: are any of these differences related and, if so, how? We might still be stumped on these questions if it weren't for the discovery of exoplanets. Much to our surprise, the majority of the planets we're discovering have a radius that's intermediate between the radiuses of Earth and Neptune. We've been able to get some understanding of the exoplanets' interiors even as we've struggled to get planet formation models to produce bodies of this size (previously, we didn’t know that any of these planets existed, so there was nothing for the models to explain). Now, a review of exoplanets suggests there's a sharp cutoff at about two times Earth's radius between what you might consider a super-Earth and a mini-Neptune.

Rocky or gassy?

The vast majority of exoplanet discoveries has come from the Kepler observatory, which tracks the dimming that exoplanets create as they pass between their host star and the Earth. That, combined with the orbital period, gives us a sense of a planet's radius. But it tells us nothing of its mass, which is needed if we're to determine the properties of the planet.

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/dbWH6hxBog4/
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Sprites form at plasma irregularities in the lower ionosphere

Science Focus

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Atmospheric sprites have been known for nearly a century, but their origins were a mystery. Now, a team of researchers has evidence that sprites form at plasma irregularities and may be useful in remote sensing of the lower ionosphere. “We are trying to understand the origins of this phenomenon,” said Victor Pasko, professor of electrical engineering, Penn State. “We would like to know how sprites are initiated and how they develop.” Sprites are an optical phenomenon that occur above thunderstorms in the D region of the ionosphere, the area of the atmosphere just above the dense lower atmosphere, about 37 to 56 miles above the Earth. The ionosphere is important because it facilitates the long distance radio communication and any disturbances in the ionosphere can affect radio transmission. “In high-speed videos we can see the dynamics of sprite formation and then use that information to model and to reproduce the dynamics,” said Jianqi Qin, postdoctoral fellow in electrical engineering, Penn State, who developed a model to study sprites. Sprites occur above thunderstorms, but thunderstorms, while necessary for the appearance of a sprite, are not sufficient to initiate sprites. All thunderstorms and lightning strikes do not produce sprites. Recent modeling studies show that plasma irregularities in the

The post Sprites form at plasma irregularities in the lower ionosphere has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/PmUBF-14DPQ/
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VIDEO: 3D printed guns 'explode when fired'

Science Focus

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Police are warning technology enthusiasts not to attempt to use 3D printers to make plastic guns, because each time they have been tested the weapons have exploded. 
#science 
 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27634626#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Orion Nebula and Trapezium Stars Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: envelope sealers, ornebcsfr, awesome astronomy images, orion nebula, emission nebula, trapezium stars, emission nebulae, hot young stars, star nursery, new born stars, dust clouds

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous picture from the deep universe featuring the bubbling, seething mass of gas and dust that is the Orion Nebula, 1500 light years away and the closest star-forming region to us. The nebula is a star nursery in which there are birthing, new-born, young and adult stars. Look carefully in the brightest central region and you'll see the Trapezium, four of the most massive stars in Orion.

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image code: ornebcsfr

Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

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Eavesdroppers begone: New quantum key distribution technique is impervious to noise

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(Phys.org) —Cryptography – the art and science of providing secure communications – typically employs three methods to authenticate users and prevent data theft: secret key (symmetric) cryptography, which uses a single key for both encryption and decryption; public key (asymmetric) cryptography which uses different keys for encryption and decryption; and hash functions, which employs a mathematical transformation to irreversibly encrypt information. That being said, quantum cryptography relies on the laws of quantum mechanics to secure private information exchange, specifically through quantum key distribution (QKD) of a random bit sequence, in which an attempt to eavesdrop on the encoded quantum states causes a detectable disturbance in the communications signal. Historically, high-precision monitoring of the disturbance decreases efficiency – but recently, scientists at The University of Tokyo, Stanford University and National Institute of Informatics (Tokyo) proposed a QKD protocol based on an entirely different principle.



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Three Galaxies over New Zealand

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Adhesive bonding with pre-applied adhesives

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In industrial production, bonding plays an increasingly important role. Researchers have now succeeded in separating the processes of applying the adhesive and the actual joining, which opens up a new world of applications. Adhesive bonding technology is an effective and inexpensive means of seamlessly joining two parts, even two made of different materials. Especially in lightweight construction, adhesive bonding is the preferred technique because many of the materials used can hardly be joined otherwise. However, since liquid adhesives need time to cure, they cannot be applied in every production step. In hopes of finding a way to eliminate the need for regularly applying liquid adhesive while joining fasteners, the automotive supplier STANLEY Engineered Fastening – Tucker GmbH in Gießen turned to the researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Bremen. Their solution was a two-step process in which adhesive is initially deposited on one of the parts and then dried to form a non-sticky layer. During a subsequent production step, the adhesive is hardened and the two parts are bonded together. Although two-step bonding techniques aren’t new – early postage stamps were coated with an adhesive that would only stick to envelopes once moistened

The post Adhesive bonding with pre-applied adhesives has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Map of universe questioned: Dwarf galaxies don't fit standard model

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Satellite dwarf galaxies at the edges of the Milky Way and neighboring Andromeda defy the accepted model of galaxy formation, and recent attempts to pigeon-hole them into the model are flawed, an international team of scientists reports.



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Name, Flame Nebula in Orion, intriguing deep space Gift Wrap

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!


tagged with: star forming, orion constellation, young stars clusters, orions belt, orion the hunter, flame nebula, astronomy pictures, deep space image, star galaxies, hrbstslr hfflmnb, heavens, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous outer space picture featuring the spectacular star-forming region known as the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings.
In views of this evocative object in visible light the core of the nebula is completely hidden behind obscuring dust, but in this VISTA view, taken in infrared light, the cluster of very young stars at the object’s heart is revealed. The wide-field VISTA view also includes the glow of the reflection nebula NGC 2023, just below centre, and the ghostly outline of the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) towards the lower right.
The bright bluish star towards the right is one of the three bright stars forming the Belt of Orion. The image was created from VISTA images taken through J, H and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.
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image code: hfflmnb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Helix Nebula, Galaxies and Stars Star Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: star nurseries, star clusters, galaxies, stars, astronomy, nebulae, helixneb, helix nebula, starfields, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic colour-composite image of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293). It was created from images obtained using the Wide Field Imager (WFI), an astronomical camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile.

The blue-green glow in the centre of the Helix comes from oxygen atoms shining under effects of the intense ultraviolet radiation of the 120 000 degree Celsius central star and the hot gas.

Further out from the star and beyond the ring of knots, the red colour from hydrogen and nitrogen is more prominent. A careful look at the central part of this object reveals not only the knots, but also many remote galaxies seen right through the thinly spread glowing gas.
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image code: helixneb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Hubble Illuminates Cluster of Diverse Galaxies iPad Cover

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: galaxy, space, universe, stars, planets, travel, exploration, science, sun, astronomy, the milky way, telescope images, moons, phenomena, supernovas, cosmos, cosmology, nebula, star cluster, solar system, space shuttle, nasa, space images, themilkyway, hubble, illuminates, cluster, diverse, galaxies

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